The story of Grandmother's Tale, as explained in the foreward, is the borderline between fiction and biography. The novelella is about Narayan's great-grandmother Bala and her search for her errant husband Viswa who left apparently on a pilgrimage soon after their marriage at a very ripe age, as was the custom at those times. Unable to bear the burden of whispering neighbours and determined to find the husband who deserted her without any strong reason, Bala went forward all alone, emboldened only by her strong will to reconcile with Viswa. What happened next was an amazing tell of courage masked by Narayan's signature comic style as related to him by Ammani - his grandmother whose memory tried to bring back almost everything but the trifling details that makes the narrative lacking in justification at certain parts but enhances the charm in no little way and can be considered as 'grandmotheretic' (it rhymes with the word 'poetic' and I think it carries the meaning I want to emphasize) justice which every Indian is well aware of. To the fans of Narayan's works this will augment the appeal like always but the added attraction is R.K. Laxman's illustrations that again makes this priceless.
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